Newtown: An American Tragedy

12/14/2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Newtown, Connecticut We remember the numbers: 20 children and 6 adults, murdered in a place of nurture and trust. We remember the names: Teachers like Victoria Soto, who lost her life protecting her students. A shooter named Adam Lanza. And we remember the questions: Outraged conjecture instantly monopolized the worldwide response to the tragedy, while the truth went missing. Here is the definitive journalistic account of Newtown.

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill 12 students and a teacher and wound 24 others before taking their own lives. For the last 16 years, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong?

The Stranger Beside Me: The Shocking True Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy

Ann Rule was working on the biggest story of her career, tracking the trail of victims left by a brutal serial killer. Little did this future best-selling author know that the savage slayer she was hunting was the young man she counted among her closest friends. Everyone's picture of a natural winner, Ted Bundy was a bright, charming, and handsome man with a promising future as an attorney. But on January 24, 1989 Bundy was executed for the murders of three young women - and had confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more women from coast to coast.

If I Can't Have You:: Susan Powell, Her Mysterious Disappearance, and the Murder of Her Children

The tragic story of Susan Powell and her murdered boys, Charlie and Braden, is the only case that rivals the Jon Benet Ramsey saga in the annals of true crime. When the pretty, blonde Utah mother went missing in December of 2009 the media was swept up in the story - with lenses and microphones trained on Susan's husband, Josh. He said he had no idea what happened to his young wife, and that he and the boys had been camping in the middle of a snowstorm.

The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez

Decades after Richard Ramirez left 13 dead and paralyzed the city of Los Angeles, his name is still synonymous with fear, torture, and sadistic murder. Philip Carlo's classic The Night Stalker, based on years of meticulous research and extensive interviews with Ramirez, revealed the killer and his horrifying crimes to be even more chilling than anyone could have imagined. The story of Ramirez is a bizarre and spellbinding descent into the very heart of human evil.

True Crime Addict: How I Lost Myself in the Mysterious Disappearance of Maura Murray

When 11-year-old James Renner fell in love with Amy Mihaljevic, the missing girl seen on posters all over his neighborhood, it was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with true crime. That obsession led James to a successful career as an investigative journalist. It also gave him PTSD. In 2011 James began researching the strange disappearance of Maura Murray, a UMass student who went missing after wrecking her car in rural New Hampshire in 2004.

John Wayne Gacy: Defending a Monster

“Sam, could you do me a favor?” Thus begins a story that has now become part of America's true-crime hall of fame. It is a gory, grotesque tale befitting a Stephen King novel. It is also a David and Goliath saga - the story of a young lawyer fresh from the public defender's office whose first client in private practice turns out to be the worst serial killer in our nation's history. This is a gripping true crime narrative that reenacts the gruesome killings and the famous trial that shocked a nation.

Adnan's Story: The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial

On February 28, 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. From the moment of his arrest, Syed has consistently maintained his innocence. Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, always believed him and has never given up the hope that he might someday be released. By 2013, however, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, things looked bleak.

Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned from them how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us - and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how he has tracked down some of the nation's most brutal murderers. Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for America's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.

Indefensible: The Missing Truth About Steven Avery, Teresa Halbach, and Making a Murderer

An insider exposes the shocking facts deliberately left out of the hit Netflix series Making a Murderer - and argues persuasively that Steven Avery was rightfully convicted in the 2005 killing of Teresa Halbach.

Too Pretty to Live: The Catfishing Murders of East Tennessee

When Bill Payne and Billie Jean Hayworth began their romance, they unknowingly set in motion a diabolical plot that would end with them murdered in their own home, Hayworth holding their mercifully unharmed infant. Chris was a CIA agent who was concerned about Jenelle. Seeing the cyberbullying she had endured, and worried for her safety, Chris got in touch with Jenelle's protective parents and her devoted boyfriend, warning them that Payne and Hayworth were a danger to Jenelle.

In Cold Blood

Why we think it’s a great listen: It’s a story that most people know, told here in an unforgettable way – an audio masterpiece that rivals the best thrillers, thanks to Capote genre-defining words and Brick’s subtle but powerful characterizations. On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

Prosecuting attorney in the Manson trial Vincent Bugliosi held a unique insider's position in one of the most baffling and horrifying cases of the 20th century: the cold-blooded Tate-LaBianca murders carried out by Charles Manson and four of his followers. What motivated Manson in his seemingly mindless selection of victims, and what was his hold over the young women who obeyed his orders? Now available for the first time in unabridged audio, the gripping story of this famous and haunting crime is brought to life by acclaimed narrator Scott Brick.

The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder

After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed "The Angel of Death" by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favorite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history.

Green River, Running Red

In the most extraordinary journey Ann Rule has ever undertaken, America's master of true crime has spent more than two decades researching the story of the Green River Killer, who murdered more than 49 young women. Green River, Running Red is a harrowing account of a modern monster, a killer who walked among us undetected. It is also the story of his quarry -- of who these young women were and who they might have become.

Conviction: The Untold Story of Putting Jodi Arias Behind Bars

Juan Martinez, the fiery prosecutor who convicted notorious murderess Jodi Arias for the disturbing killing of Travis Alexander, speaks for the first time about the shocking investigation and sensational trial that captivated the nation. Through two trials, America watched with bated breath as Juan Martinez fought relentlessly to convict Jodi Arias of murder one for viciously stabbing her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, to death.

The Misbegotten Son

An account of the crimes of Arthur Shawcross describes how the paroled child killer shot, stabbed, suffocated, and strangled 16 Rochester, New York, prostitutes and examines how the legal system failed his victims.

Salt of the Earth

Joe Gere said he died on the afternoon his 12-year-old daughter Brenda disappeared. It was left to Brenda's mother Elaine to sustain her stricken family, search for her missing child, and pressure the authorities for justice. From the first minutes of the investigation, suspicion fell on Michael Kay Green, a steroid-abusing "Mr. Universe" hopeful, but there was no proof of a crime, leaving police and prosecutors stymied. Tips and sightings poured in as lawmen and volunteers combed the Cascades forest.

Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery

One late spring evening in 2010, Shannan Gilbert, after running through the oceanfront community of Oak Beach screaming for her life, went missing. No one who had heard of her disappearance thought much about what had happened to the 24-year-old: She was a Craigslist prostitute who had been fleeing a scene. The Suffolk County Police, too, seemed to have paid little attention - until seven months later, when an unexpected discovery in a bramble alongside a nearby highway turned up four bodies, all evenly spaced, all wrapped in burlap. But none of them Shannan's.

The Bundy Murders: A Comprehensive History

Theodore Bundy was one of the more infamous, and flamboyant, American serial killers on record, and his story is a complex mix of psychopathology, criminal investigation, and the U.S. legal system. This in-depth examination of Bundy's life and his killing spree that totaled dozens of victims is drawn from legal transcripts, correspondence and interviews with detectives and prosecutors. Using these sources, new information on several murders is unveiled.

Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony

It was the trial that stunned America, the verdict that shocked us all. On July 5, 2011, nearly three years after her initial arrest, Casey Anthony walked away, virtually scot-free, from one of the most sensational murder trials of all time. She'd been accused of killing her daughter, Caylee, but the trial only left behind more questions: Was she actually innocent? What really happened to Caylee? Was this what justice really looked like?

Waiting to Be Heard: A Memoir

Amanda Knox spent four years in a foreign prison for a crime she did not commit. In the fall of 2007, the 20-year-old college coed left Seattle to study abroad in Italy, but her life was shattered when her roommate was murdered in their apartment. After a controversial trial, Amanda was convicted and imprisoned. But in 2011, an appeals court overturned the decision and vacated the murder charge. Free at last, she returned home to the U.S., where she has remained silent, until now.

My Sweet Angel: The True Story of Lacey Spears, the Seemingly Perfect Mother Who Murdered Her Son in Cold Blood

Lacey Spears made international headlines in January 2015, when she was charged with the "depraved mind" murder of her five-year-old son, Garnett. Prosecutors alleged that the 27-year-old mother had poisoned him with high concentrations of salt through his stomach tube. To the outside world, Lacey had seemed like the perfect mother, regularly posting dramatic updates on her son's harrowing medical problems. But in reality, Lacey was a textbook case of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

Publisher's Summary

Over the course of this gripping narrative, Dave Cullen approaches his subjects with unrivaled care and insight. What emerges are shattering portraits of the killers, the victims, and the community that suffered one of the greatest - and most socially and historically important - shooting tragedies of the 20th century.

Ten years in the works, Columbine is a masterpiece of reportage, from the acclaimed journalist who followed the massacre from day one and reconstructed the psychological journey of two teenage boys who became killers.

What the Critics Say

"Dave Cullen is the Dante of this high school hell. I came away from it thinking of Jack Nicholson hollering 'You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!' Read this quietly powerful account of Columbine and find out if you can." (Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler)

As a person who lives minutes from Columbine High School here in CO - I am still stunned after listening to this book. Like many around these parts, I had initially followed the reporting intensely - then after some months - just turned away due to overload. So it was with a lot of hesitation when I started listening - but after I started - I just couldn't stop listening. I admit that I was one who held onto many of the original myths of the tragedy. I have now shaken loose these myths, thanks to a very miticulous piece of writing here from Mr. Cullen. And I was vagually aware of some of the miss-steps taken by my county - JeffCo, but now I am especially embarassed. After listening, I was compelled to stop by the Columbine Memorial the other day for the first time - I had to read the Rohrbough inscription. It was a stunningly, bluebird summer day and Clement park was a happy place. Don't laugh, but this book is like a little therapy for me.

So after many years of Audible books, this choice was by far, my BEST choice. Thanks Dave Cullen and thanks Audible.

This book should become the definitive retelling of the Columbine tragedy, and a classic true crime story as is Helter Skelter or The Executioner's Song. Its recounts what happened, how it happened and its effects on the victims and their families. It brings home the loss of each individual and how terrible the shootings really were.

Some things are best understood after time has past and Dave Cullen's book "Columbine" does a great service by bringing perspective to the assault. True crime readers will be impressed by the breadth and depth of coverage he provides to the topic. Professionals from all kinds of disciplines will be pleased. Cullen's description of neuro plasticity and problems of a student recovering are good. His chapter on psychopathy alone is worth the price of the book. Every technical aspect of the Columbine experience is described in easy to understand language.

The opening portions of the book tell the story as reconstructed and it is a page turner. Cullen informs the reader as he describes the influences of the media on public perception, deception of the authorities, and the emotional trials of the families touched most deeply by the crimes. Myths built around a few of the students and their book publishing deals are examined. I cannot image a stone unturned or an aspect of the crimes not discussed in this book.

The book is troubling until explanations for the behavior of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebod are finally understood.

I am looking forward to the next work by Cullen, but I don't know how he will be able to do it. He has done a great service to the public.

I believe Cullen has gotten to the bottom of the mystery why Eric and Dylan went on their rampage. As the headline in Salon said, "Everything you know about Columbine is wrong." Cullen explains that the boys weren't outcasts, Goths, etc. and their victims weren't jocks, bullies, etc. In fact, their goal was to rack up the biggest kill in one act and go down in history with a huge impact by blowing up the entire school and killing 600 or more with their bombs. But their bombs didn't work. The bombs and what they did with the bombs proves that victim "choice" was arbitrary. At the beginning, they meant to blow up the Commons and kill *everyone.* At the end, they again tried to blow up their bombs and kill *everyone* who was trying to hide.

Cullen makes the case that Eric Harris was a classic psychopath, and I kept thinking if he had lived, he might have killed more. He might have found a way to get hold of a weapon that would have worked the way he intended his bombs to work that day. Harris and Klebold were kind of a modern-day Leopold and Loeb, and they planned their rampage for a year and were very smart in hiding their planning from parents and authorities. This was not just an excuse to take blame off the parents or the school...you'd have to read the book and see Cullen's convincing case.

I read a long time ago in Colin Wilson's "A Criminal History of Mankind" that an infant would blow up the entire world if it had the power, such is its rage that it is not getting a bottle right that moment. Cullen's take on Eric brought this back to me.

This was the gist of the book. This wasn't really a review but kind of a summary. But I think Cullen makes a convincing case.

While I was loathe to download one, not wanting to be a voyeur on someone's tragedy, the reviews led me to download it anyway. I was not disappointed. It doesn't romanticize the incident whatsoever and is extremely well researched. It takes an objective point of view, looking at every single part if the incident. I could not stop listening. The narrator is easy to listen to and didn't overly dramatize which I appreciated. You will learn a lot about school violence, and be shocked by the role of the media. Fascinating read.

This is a refreshingly unemotional narrative. It cuts through many of the myths surrounding Columbine, all the while delivering the facts in a respectful way (to the victims). It tackled many of the hot-button controversies and helped us understand how they happened. Most of all, it allowed Dave Cullen, as a member of the press, critically review how his colleges handled the tragedy. Hopefully they'll (and we'll) learn from the early sensationalism and change!

A timely and thought-provoking book that looks not just at the events that led up to the shooting but also the aftermath for the victims, the families and the community and what has happened to them in the past 10 years. At times this was hard to listen to, not because of the reader (who was ok) but because the content was graphic in its detail. I work in the mental health field with children and adolescents and there is always something society can glean from a book written retrospectively. I have recommended this book to my staff and highly recommend it to audible members.

After years iof Audible listening, I'm pleased to write my first review on this exceptionally well-written and detailed account of this event and the people involved. Cullen's years of research lend to an intricate look into the minds behind the attack and the time leading up to the harrowing event, as well as impacts on the families and ommunities involved, analyses into the precursors, and lessons learned. Leslie's performace as narrator is one of the most solid and gripping I've ever heard, bringing a chilling authenticity to the text, especially those of Harris and Klebold themselves.

Ordinarily this is not my kind of book. I had children in high school at the time of the event, and it grieved and gripped me as much as anyone, but I thought I was saturated in it and wasn't interested in a literary autopsy of this tragedy. Still, the Salon article and then a low sale price convinced me to give it a try. The audiobook languished in my iPod for months, and finally I let it played through.

This one was of the most-compelling reports I have ever heard. Cullen did a truly exhaustive job researching the story, and leaves no stone unturned. He is frank and decisive about those stories which are left to conjecture, or those persons who refuse to give contemporary information, and a shocking, upsetting, maddening and somewhat horrifying tale unfolds in sharp and shattering detail. I was educated and appalled.

Don Leslie's reading is flawless and soothing in the face of such a devastating narrative. Four stars only because this tale is not for everyone, but it is for a much wider audience than I ever would have believed.

The directness of Dave Cullen's Columbine gives it the credibility it richly deserves. His deeply detailed research is presented with objectivity and as little emotion as possible. Of course you can't help but scream, cry and pray after you read it but for the first time I think I understand the story of Columbine but even moreover I think I understand some of the reason behind it. Even though I believe the story could have been told a fewer pages I highly recommend this fascinating read.